I'll also be running a Tarot subscription: you'll get 4 quarterly readings, starting from December (or, if you're a regular subscriber, from 3 months' on from your last reading. But you can sign up at any point).

Tarot

Tarot for a Year £20.00 GBP

I shall be running the usual series of 12 stories throughout 2018-19. Some will be SF, and some Fantasy. None of these stories have been, or will be, published elsewhere: they're all written for subscribers only.

THE MIX: I will be writing 4 standalone stories, across a range of universes.

JOAN SILENCE: this is a new occult detective series, based on Algernon Blackwell's John Silence tales, but with a female lead. Again, a series of 4.

CHEN: and 4 more stories for Chen and friends!

Short Stories

Joan Silence £10.00 GBP Chen £10.00 GBP Standalone tales £10.00 GBP All of them £25.00 GBP

In addition to the short story sub, I'm running a Tarot For A Year subscription: 4 full readings, with the possibility of additional questions, for £20 (£5 per reading) starting in December.

Tarot

Tarot for a Year £20.00 GBP

We've been up in Lancashire recently, staying at the fabulous Stirk House Hotel and attending the latest Pendle Witch Tour - this was one of a series of tours organised by the hotel itself. We caught up with the tour on Tuesday morning, and were whisked into Pendle Hill country - this is such a beautiful area, and it seems strangely remote still, but in fact it's only 35 miles or so from Manchester and a few miles from the M6. Pendle itself is a huge whaleback of a hill rising above the Ribble Valley, and some of the original witches lived on its slopes. Guide Simon Entwhistle, who really knows his stuff, introduced us to the story of the witches as we travelled around some of the beautiful villages which lie at the foot of Pendle. After that, it was back to the hotel for an excellent lunch and then out to Salmesbury Hall, which I've never been to before but which is a remarkable half timbered Medieval hall: a big establishment with some fine furniture and a fascinating history.

Back at Stirk House, Trevor and I explored the grounds (you can watch badgers and owls from their hide) and admired the views over the Ribble Valley, before spending some time in the hotel's bar (complete with priest hole) and then on to dinner, which was very good. An early night beckoned as we were up early - to a very good breakfast (I had haddock with poached eggs) and then over the Trough of Bowland to Lancaster. This part of the country is entirely new to both of us and we thought the countryside was absolutely stunning - huge sweeps of heather-covered moor and upland, with deep valleys containing farms belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster. Then it was up over the high hills and down into Lancaster itself, complete with castle and the old prison - it stopped being a HMP in 2010, so although its history as an ancient prison is extensive, it contains modern times, too. Simon came with us and added to the already very good tour at the castle itself.

I feel as though I've learned a lot about the Pendle witches. I knew the basic story, but not a lot of the detail - it was fascinating, for example, to see Alice Nutter's house and to realise that the witches came from a variety of social classes and positions. Nutter was quite wealthy, and fell foul of a local magistrate because of disputes over land rights - poor lady, she paid a high price for her social status. But many of the witches were peasants and although they probably were involved in some dodgy things, it was sobering to realise how far they were taken, from Pendle to the castle, and how far the authorities went to punish a handful of old ladies.

Stirk House and Simon run other tours, too, of York and Lancashire, and I really do recommend this as a destination of a part of Britain that deserves to be better known.

A big thank you to everyone at Stirk House, particularly Amanda and Katie, and to Simon, for making this such a great experience!

https://www.facebook.com/stirk.house/?fref=ts

http://www.stirkhouse.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/simon.entwistle.96?fref=ts

For any new people who are interested in checking out the shop's pagan blog, it is here:

http://witchcraft-shop.livejournal.com/

The traffic isn't as heavy as this one, but we do have some interesting discussions.

Flying visit to Cambridge at the weekend, to go to one of Magdalene's NRM (non residential members) nights: I have dining rights at the college 3 times a year, and they recently realised that people weren't taking these up because they weren't sure if it was OK to just show up, etc. So now you get a tour of the library, drinks with the Fellows and dinner at High Table as a more formal event. Trevor has not been in the Pepys Library and enjoyed it: Pepys specified in his will that nothing could be detracted or added, so it's much as it was when it was in his house in London. And they had some diagrams of the Great Worme Engine, which he was, IIRC, involved with (it's an early fire engine pump).

Magdalene is not unlike a bit of Hogwarts, since it's full of passages and entrances behind paintings etc, and much of it, including the dining hall, has no electricity and is candlelit (speculation that this is so you can't see what you're eating is unfounded). Partners have to be separated throughout, rightly, so I talked to one of the Fellows, a very interesting woman, and my neighbour, who is the bursar of one of the Oxford schools. Looking down the ranks of undergrads, there is a noticeable change from the rugger buggers of yesterday, to young Asian women. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, allowing women (including me) into the college in 1988 has resulted in a meteoric rise up the academic charts.

We had terrine, salmon and then a choice: years ago, one of the scientific members deliberately poisoned himself with nerve gas (and his department - one of the Fellows remarked, rather wistfully, 'One can't do that these days' - however tempted, no doubt) in order to try to find a treatment for it. I think he may have been partially successful but ruined his digestion, and thus they had to serve bland food: rice pudding is still on the menu in his honour, so I had it.

Then we went upstairs, which was also candlit and had a log fire, for port.

In the morning, Ian Whates turned up with copies of the new short story collection and we did a big signing at Kari's house, before T and I headed into Mill Road to raid the Asian supermarkets for things we can't get in benighted Somerset, and lunch at the Kingston Arms. Great to see everyone, and a big thank you to Ian for producing the book and to Kari for writing the introduction.

We're now back and into the last stage of apple bagging for the local cider farm: I have not been nearly as experimental as some of the f-list in the matter of apples, but we're not doing too badly. We overcooked things socially this month, basically by thinking 'oh, it's November, nothing happens then' so have had racing, Samhain, the cinema, Bonfire Night, Cambridge, more racing, then the town carnival and Frost Fair, then a visit to London, and it turns out that the earliest I can arrange dinner with a friend is December 11th. But it's all good.

I mentioned a short story commission in my last post. This is what it relates to: some time ago, Tanith Lee's husband John Kaiine contacted me with regard to writing a story for an upcoming tribute anthology for Tanith: I was honoured to be asked, and duly wrote the story. It's called Waterwitch, and it's a sea story: I always associate Tanith with the sea, partly because so much of her work is based around it, but also because of where she and I lived when we got to know one another, namely the South Coast of England.

I ran the story through Milford this year and they liked it, and it subsequently made it into the anthology.

Today, Storm Constantine has let everyone know that "Immanion Press is in the final stages of producing 'Night's Nieces' a collection of short stories by female writers who were friends of Tanith Lee and greatly inspired by her. The lineup includes Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Vera Nazarian, Sarah Singleton, Kari Sperring, Sam Stone, Freda Warrington, Liz Williams and me. I also edited it.
Tanith's husband John Kaiine has done a wonderful cover illustration for us, and I'll preview this as soon as I've put the text on it.
The book is due out in early December - so a perfect Christmas present for your fantasy fan friends - and there will be a simultaneous eBook edition. There will probably also be some offers and promotions involved!"